Introducing the New Phenom II 980 BE vs. Core i7-920 – value meets performance again

Conclusion

This has been quite an enjoyable exploration for us in comparing our Core i7 with the just-released Phenom II X4 980 Black Edition using our GTX 590.  We wish we had more time and you can expect a “Part two” which will continue on to use Phenom II X2 550 as well as more video cards including the HD 6970, the HD 6990 and HD 69×0 TriFire-X3 plus the GTX 580 and GTX 580 SLI.

Until Part two, however, we can give a definite thumbs up to this new Phenom II – especially when it is overclocked to 4.3GHz.  It show us that Intel’s aging X58 i7-9×0 CPUs are in need of a value overhaul – something like Sandy Bridge’s Core i5-2400 which is at about the same price as this new Phenom II and which should also be very close in gaming performance.  We are expecting a Sandy Bridge CPU review from our Senior Editor Leon Hyman very soon.

As you can see from our benchmarks, if you want absolutely the very fastest frame rates with a GTX 590/HD 6990 class of video card – and cost is no object – you will chose the fastest quad-core CPU you can afford and overclock it as far as you can. We also see that as your graphics gets more powerful, generally your CPU needs to also be progressively faster to match it.  So, future and more powerful video card purchases should always be considered whenever you upgrade your CPU.

However, this fact is to be noted. If you are looking for bang for buck now with a single video card of the HD 6990 or GTX 590 class of card – and this would include GTX 570 SLI and HD 6950 CrossFire – the very expensive Core i7 CPU even clocked to 3.7GHz is generally overkill for high-resolution gaming and sometimes it is not the fastest solution when compared to our relatively low-budget Phenom II X4 980 Black Edition.

Your even more budget alternatives would be to buy the (now) lower-clocked (and lower-priced) Phenom IIs and to overclock them to near 4GHz; or to buy Intel’s new Sandy Bridge Core i5-2500K.  Of course, this new processor really shines as a performance upgrade to replace a slower and older AM2 or AM2+ processor.  Of course, with a new “bulldozer” CPU platform due from AMD shortly, one must think carefully about any CPU upgrade now.

Phenom II 980 Black Edition

Pros

Price – for $185 it is a great value in any PC gaming system

AM2+/AM3/AM3+ compatibility

Excellent upgrade for a AM2+ system or a slower AM3 CPU

Cons

Core i5-2500K is offered at a similar price and performance level

Less expensive Phenom IIs overclock nearly as well and offer a similar level of performance

Bulldozer is coming which means a new CPU platform from AMD and limited upgrade potential.

The Verdict:

If you are buying a Phenom II X4 980 Black Edition *right now* it is a great value and bang-for-buck gaming CPU that rivals the much more expensive Core i7-920 using even very powerful graphics.  This new CPU will replace our aging and 500MHz slower Phenom II X4 955 as our AMD flagship CPU for evaluating hardware alongside our Intel Core i7-920 platform.

The Phenom II X4 BE definitely deserves our ABT Editor’s Choice Award!

Since last year, only a few more new games have joined our benchmarking list along with World in Conflict that seem to really benefit from a fast Intel quad-core so as to make a practical difference to the game play – and Core i7 is still generally also the fastest CPU. However, the rest of the benchmarks still demonstrate that our two CPU platforms run fairly close in performance to each other and the results are satisfactory once they are overclocked a bit. We even note that overclocking is not always necessary if you don’t mind sacrificing just a few frame rates or lowering details or anti-aliasing.

Our conclusion from this and from past testing still confirms that your graphic card is the single most important factor for creating the best gaming experience with maximum details at high resolutions – not the CPU.

Our current performance versus value series has drawn to a close – for now. We will revisit it again using even faster graphics than our GTX 590 setup – perhaps with GTX 580 SLI and with HD 69×0 CrossFire or TriFire-X3 as well as with single-GPU cards. Stay tuned, there is a lot coming from us at ABT including a Galaxy-ABT Facebook contest beginning next week.

Mark Poppin

ABT Senior Editor

Please join us in our Forums

Become a Fan on Facebook

Follow us on Twitter

For the latest updates from ABT, please join our RSS News Feed

Join our Distributed Computing teams

• Folding@Home – Team AlienBabelTech – 164304
• SETI@Home – Team AlienBabelTech – 138705
• World Community Grid – Team AlienBabelTech